In rush to embrace diversity, firms overlook the disabled

(Reuters) - Caroline Ashrafi, who built a successful career
as a manager at KPMG in Britain while privately struggling with
mental health problems, recalls being sent on a management
training course on how to retain talented women.

She found that discussions - ostensibly intended to increase
diversity in the workplace - had little to do with her.

"Most people were talking about childcare, working
part-time, being a woman. And I just sat there and thought none
of them apply to me," she said. "What struck me then was that my
biggest barrier is my depression."

Companies are working harder than ever to make their
workplaces diverse. But in their efforts to reach out to women
and members of ethnic minorities, many may be overlooking one of
the biggest groups of under-represented talent in their midst:
those living with disabilities.

The disabled are rarely covered in company reports into
diversity, despite being the world's largest minority group,
numbering more than 1 billion, according to the World Health
Organization.

The debate around corporate diversity tends to be framed as
a way of making workplaces less "pale, male and stale." If the
problem is that women and members of ethnic minorities are
under-represented, then the solution is to hire, retain and
promote more of them.

But some advocates say that reduces diversity to a narrow
conversation about ticking gender and race boxes, rather than
looking more broadly at the ways people are different.

"Sometimes when I talk to firms about working with them you
often get the 'Oh, we're not doing disability, we're doing
women, we're doing women and black people at the moment,'" said
Helen Cooke, who advises companies on how to recruit and retain
disabled graduates in Britain.

"That is the approach a lot of them will take rather than,
'let's be inclusive for everybody.'"

A senior headhunter in London recalls looking for candidates
for a top executive role at a major financial services firm
which had been at pains to express its interest in "diversity."

His list of candidates included people of different ethnic
backgrounds, sexual orientation and physical disability.

"After our shortlist review meeting, the head of HR called
me and said rather sheepishly, 'What we were really wondering
was . . . do you have any middle-aged white women?'," said the
headhunter, who declined to be identified because he is not
authorized to speak to the media.

THE FEAR FACTOR

The business case for having a diverse workforce and
leadership is well understood. Different backgrounds and
experience encourage people to think differently, helping
organizations to compete. Recruiting from wider groups broadens
the talent pool.

Both of those arguments apply to people living with
disabilities as surely as they apply to women or those from
ethnic minorities.

Cooke, the consultant, says many companies are
well-intentioned, but don't know how to target talented disabled
individuals.

"There is a huge fear factor around disability and we are
afraid of getting it wrong and we are afraid of what to do and
what to say and embarrassing somebody," said Cooke, who has used
a wheelchair all her life after suffering a spinal tumor as a
baby.

Richard Priestley believes it is up to him to put people at
ease. Head of retirement income at Canada Life in the UK,
Priestley broke his neck in what he describes as a "really dull"
cycling accident, two weeks before he was due to get married in
1998.

He was working with Dutch insurer Aegon in Edinburgh when he
came off his bike, paralyzing him from the chest down and
leaving him with limited mobility in one hand. He has since
worked for Lloyds Banking Group and now Canada Life in London.

"As I have moved through various employers it is all about
the people around you who make it either easy or hard to do the
job in a wheelchair. The biggest challenge is that first time
when people are almost tiptoeing around it."

Priestley said his injury has not had a major impact on his
career. He can travel for work and doesn't require much in the
way of adjustments to his office. He is upfront about needing
assistance when required.

"Occasionally, there might be a couple of steps up to a
building but it's relatively easy to find a couple of hefty
passersby and say, 'Would you mind giving me a hand?"

LIP SERVICE

One problem in encouraging companies to hire people with
disabilities is that many are not as visible as Priestley's.
People who have disabilities that can be concealed may choose to
hide them at the workplace for fear of being stigmatized.

Around 10 percent of university students in Britain are open
about being disabled, but people with declared disabilities only
made up around 2 percent of applicants for graduate jobs in
2011-2012 according to a study of 70,000 applications from
GradWeb, a recruitment group.

Ashrafi spent years hiding her depression from colleagues at
KPMG until she realized the subterfuge was draining her of
energy and hampering her career.

She "came out" and was staggered by the positive response.

"I thought, 'Oh my god, if I had known I was going to get
this much positive reaction, I would have done it years ago,'"
she said. "The attitude is definitely changing in favor of
disabled people."

It's easier to be open about your mental health if you
already have a well-established career. Those starting out on
the career ladder may be afraid to expose a disability to
recruiters.

"You can tell an awful lot by their facial reaction and
quite often I will get a, 'How did you get into university' or
a, 'How are you even in front of me,' kind of face," said a
masters student in London, describing his experience with
corporate recruiters during a search for a banking job.

Hospitalized for two years at 17 for depression, the
student, now 31, does not lie about the gap in his resume or why
he didn't sit his secondary school exams.

He hasn't had depression for five years and hasn't taken a
day off work or university in seven, but says companies seemed
to overlook his academic achievements.

"In my experience, very few companies follow through on
diversity. It is largely lip service," said the student, who
asked not to be identified for fear of hurting his job prospects
further.

Dennis Stevenson, one of the few members of Britain's
corporate elite to come out about mental illness, agrees with
the glum assessment of firms' understanding.

"The world is changing but there are only a small minority
of corporations that are quite enlightened," he said.

Stevenson, who founded a successful management consultancy
and has held directorships across British industry, opened up
about suffering from depression more than 15 years ago while in
his fifties and serving as chairman of media group Pearson.

He doubts whether he would have been as frank if he had been
a career man rather than a wealthy entrepreneur, and advises
fellow sufferers to be cautious about going public if they are
mid-career or starting out.

Stevenson, who was also chairman of UK bank HBOS, believes
companies' attitudes to mental illness will only change when top
executives open up about their own experience of it.

"A big proportion of top business leaders have clinical
illnesses," he said. "The culture of doublethink and denial is
absolutely extraordinary."